let me finish tonight with this. there is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come. and that idea today is marriage equality. the numbers are roll in as more and more americans accept the idea as the young are seen embracing it, indeed wondering why it was a debate point to begin with. tonight we show you a full-page newspaper ad with pictures of general powell and even dick cheney joining in support of marriage equality. well, we will see. i look at the 14th amendment to the constitution and see a liberty clause and think about the declaration of independence itself and its historic protection of the pursuit of happiness. i wonder why we didn't all see this sooner. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show" from new york. john boehner plays the blame game again. it exposes the weak underbelly of the republican party. this is "the ed show." let's get to work.

>> i don't like the sequester. >> the outrageous, phony fight to blame the president reaches new lows. >> i would liked to have not had the sequester in the first place. >> john boehner's sequester lies are exposed. republicans refuse to compromise, and the middle class americans are nine days away from getting the shaft yet again. dnc chair debbie wasserman schultz weighs in. a hack job drives the right-wing assault on president obama's pick for defense. tonight the source of the friends of hamas spear has been identified. and it is truly a joke. plus, disgusting cuts to unemployment cripple the poor in north carolina. the pizza man goes on fox news and calls obama voters stupid? and the man who gave the world sarah palin is getting destroyed by tea partiers in arizona. >> you said build the dang fence where.

is the fence? >> good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. speaker boehner's lies, well, they are finally catching up with him. the truth has a funny way of coming back to haunt you, doesn't it? today president obama continued to tell the public about the damage to expect if the automatic budget cuts from the sequester are not averted. here is a good reason the president is keeping the pressure on. polls show the public will blame republicans. in the latest survey, a majority of americans do not support the republican priorities in congress. those priorities include cuts, cuts, and more cuts, and a lot of hurt. but house speaker john boehner has been trying to avoid the blame game by putting the sequester around the president's neck. >> we're weeks away from the president's sequester, and the president laid out no plan to eliminate the sequester and the harmful cuts that will come as a result of it. >> remember that. he is saying the president's sequester. all right. let's move on.

boehner's lackeys in congress are happy to repeat the speaker's talking points. >> the day that the devastating sequestration cuts, the president's sequestration cuts take effect, and we have yet to hear a plan from the president. >> well, that's two. first boehner and now his lackey. well, the water carriers over at fox news, they're happy to push the same propaganda. >> all right. the cuts are not smart. they're not fair. they're going to hurt the economy. but what the president didn't mention, that the sequester, that was his idea in the first place. >> not smart, not fair, it was his idea? let's keep adding it up, boys. today john boehner fired off his latest shot in this blame game. he took to the pages of the "wall street journal" to accuse the president of the united states of creating a financial crisis. boehner said the president's sequester is now eminent. but the daily beast website released some information today to knock down boehner's accusations. you see, back in 2011, boehner's office developed a power point

presentation for house republicans. it was a two-step approach, but it actually contained three steps. first of all, no tax hikes. of course that's typical. spending cuts extending the debt ceiling increase, and spending caps. but while pushing those spending caps, boehner did what? he highlighted a special trigger mechanism -- sequestration. boehner was selling this idea to his caucus as a good way to make sure that they were going to be able to get the cuts that they really wanted. boehner loved the sequester. he said it would be a great way to make sure spending is cut across the board, and that's what the republicans wanted. when the bill was signed, boehner told the country, he told everybody just how much he loved it. >> when you look at this final agreement that we came to with the white house, you know, i got 98% of what i wanted. i'm pretty happy. >> wait a minute now. i thought it was the president's plan.

see, folks, the lying just keeps coming. boehner continued his lies in an op-ed today. he said the president got his higher taxes, $600 billion from higher earners and no spending cuts at the end of 2012. well, let's do a little math for the speaker of the house. $1.2 trillion is greater than $600 billion. john boehner should know this. he did the math before. in fact, he was one of 174 republicans in the house of representatives who voted for the budget control act of 2011. those republicans, what did they get? they got $1.2 billion in cuts to set up by the sequester by passing the bill. then there was the parting shot today by boehner. the sequester is a product of the president's own failed leadership. my friends, i present to you tonight that boehner is not only a liar, but he could teach a master class in failed leadership. because, you see, he is the speaker who just can't get his

caucus to support any of his own proposed bills. he is the guy who is bringing in members to work really hard only 126 days this year. he is the elected leader who doesn't care if republicans lose their job and americans lose their jobs. >> if some of those jobs are lost in this, so be it. we're broke. it's time for us to get serious about how we're spending the nation's money. >> so on one hand, they say that the president doesn't want the make cuts, but now that we're coming down to the wire, they're blaming him for the sequester when 174 republicans voted on it. does it sound like everything is adding up to you? john boehner is coming up empty on the sequester fight. but what he is counting on, your stupidity. he is hoping you don't remember the summer of 2011. he is hoping that you don't remember the budget control act. he is hoping that you'll just forget all of this stuff and it's this damn guy obama who doesn't know anything about the economy, and we should have elected mitt romney, but now we're stuck with this, we got to

do these cuts. excuses, excuses, excuses. so hollow, they have an identity crisis on the republican side right now and they just don't know how to deal with it. so the best way to deal with it, just lie to the public. we'll get hannity to lie too. we'll get all of fox folks to lie about it. we'll get some backup that we need. and maybe we'll hoodwink just enough people to blame the president. we'll get all these it cuts and pin it on him and say it's his economy. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question. does john boehner know the meaning of leadership? text "a" for yes and text b for no. you can always go to our blog. joining me debbie wasserman schultz. congresswoman, good to have you with us tonight. >> thank you, ed. great to be with you. >> how do the republicans get away with this lying? they're banking on the american people being stupid what other conclusion with can we come to? >> you know, the further evidence is that here i am in

south florida, and as much as i love being home with my constituents and my family, if the speaker and the republicans in the house are really serious about reaching a compromise with the president, why aren't we in session? why did they all vote to adjourn last week when democrats said we needed to stay in washington and hammer out a compromise? we've got eight days left, ed. the clock is ticking. and at the end of that eight days you're going to have 70,000 kids kicked off headstart. you're going to have cuts to education and health care. i was just at a community meeting in my district where i had constituents who were concerned about the cutback in hours that the irs offices locally have had. >> sure. >> and you know what the sequester is going to do? it's going to shut offices like that down because of furloughs. we need to make sure that we focus on a balanced approach to reducing our deficit, heed the president's call for us to

compromise and stop this my way or the highway politics. and, you know, i think the proof is in the pudding. there are republican members of congress who have publicly stated that this sequester is their leverage so that they can finally get the spending cuts that they want and to show that they're serious about spending cuts. well, this is going to be serious, all right. >> here is another line from speaker boehner's op-ed today. he says the president has put forth no detailed plan that can pass congress. is that correct? >> that's just simply not correct. we've already done $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction of a $4 trillion grand bargain that speaker boehner walked away from. there are significant spending cuts and revenue in that plan. you know, what i'd like to know is name -- why hasn't john boehner or any of the republicans in the congress named one tax loophole that they're willing to close for a wealthy person so that we can reduce this deficit in a balanced and responsible way? where is their plan? it's nonexistent. >> where are you going to get new revenue when the republicans have drawn a line in the sand? how are you going to do this?

>> look, during the entire campaign last year, mitt romney and all the republican leadership that i heard said they were in favor of closing tax loopholes. that was one of the few things we agreed on. so why can't we close the loophole that allows for a tax break on having a corporate jet? how about ending wasteful oil company subsidies when they are making hundreds of billions of dollars? >> profit. >> yes. it's just stunning. >> there is a lot of fat out there that you could go get in the tax code, but getting the republicans to get on board with you on that, that would mean they would have to work with the president, and i think that's part of the equation too. congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz at home getting an earful tonight from constituents. >> it's unfortunate. >> great to have you with us on the program. >> thanks. >> now let's turn to karen finney, former communications director of the dnc. steve benen with us as well, msnbc political contributor and producer for "the rachel maddow show." great to have both of you with us. karen, you first. it's hard to believe this would be a long-term strategy. but this power point strategy

that has been unearthed from the summer of 2011 is very telling. what do you make of it? >> it is very telling, ed. but one of the things we have learned about this republican party for some time now is they are very comfortable speaking out of both sides of their mouth. i mean, here you have on the one hand they're saying we know part of the reason we lost. we've got to get out there and talk about working people and talk about middle class people, and yet on the other side, as we just were hearing from the chairman of the democratic party, they refuse to name even one cut that would impact some of those higher earners. they refuse -- you know, they refuse to accept the fact that we need more revenue. it's not just -- we can't cut our way simply to where we need to be. >> it is their dishonesty. >> it is. >> they had 174 republicans vote for this, and now they're trying to hang it on the president. >> that's right. and to quote hillary clinton, at a point, even though they all voted for it, and he was part of -- boehner was part of selling it, who cares. the point is at this point, get

back to the table and come up with a plan, with a deal. the president has said i'm willing to meet with you. >> steve, if they say no revenue, where do the democrats go from here? >> i think they don't go anywhere. at this point, the process has stalled. there are no talks there are no back channel productions. this are no progress in reaching a resolution and we're really only eight days away. democrats cannot cave and give republicans everything they want, even though i think they're facing some pressure from the political establishment to try and do that in order to work something out. i think at this point all evidence suggests they're going to push into march. that the sequestration cuts are going to happen, and because they really have no choice there is no compromise on the table. there is no opportunity to really work out a deal with republicans who refuse to negotiate or accept any concessions. and with that in mind, i think the consensus among democrats that i talked to on capitol hill today is that the sequester will happen. hopefully that will ratchet up the pressure some more. they'll be able to return to maybe some state of negotiations in march before the severe

damage really kicks in. but at this point, there is no hope of any kind of resolution between now and eight days from now. >> this is a sample of how some in the conservative media are blaming the president. >> he will inflict maximum pain on us, the taxpayer and the economy if we go through with just a 2% redoes in spending. >> dishonesty is all over the place, karen. >> it is. and, again, they're not talking about how we got here, which was the budget control act. and how did we get to the budget control act? because john boehner couldn't control his caucus. don't forget, that's how we got into this mess in the first place. as you pointed out, talk about a lack of leadership, my goodness. >> steve, isn't this what the republicans have wanted all along, across-the-board cuts? i know they're very concerned about defense spending and defense projects, because it's in the backyard of a lot of these republicans. but across-the-board cuts is really what they wanted all along, because this is going to force the democrats to possibly

go after the big three. what about that? >> i think there is something to that. i mean clearly their hopes all along were the sequester, as damaging as it is gives them the cuts that they want without any real revenue. the president was able to get $600 billion in revenue towards the end of last year. but at this point republicans are thinking no more revenue, no more compromising, and they want a deal that has 100% cuts, zero percent revenue. and for all the ills, all the damage it's going to do the military, the economy, the public needs, this neat meets the republicans' test which is more they want than anything else. >> i would like to see the speaker say there was never really any power point. it was just somebody playing with the optics. >> it's coming. >> karen finney and steve benen, thanks for being with us on "the ed show." thank you so much. remember to answer the question at the bottom of the screen. we always love to get your input on everything. and follow us at twitter and ed show on facebook. we like to know what you think. last night we told you how republicans used whacked out

websites to make real decisions. tonight, here we go. round two. another unbelievable story about a joke, how a joke becomes a republican talking point. we're right back.

coming up, "the ed show" congressional committee is back tonight. they'll tackle boehner's big lie and more. and the man who made sarah palin a household name faces the wrath of the monster he created. more on john mccain's really rough town hall meeting ahead. don't forget, you can listen to my radio show on sirius xm radio channel 127 monday through friday noon to 3:00 p.m. share your thoughts with us on facebook and on twitter using #edshow. we are coming right back.

welcome back to "the ed show." thanks for watching tonight. last night on this broadcast we told you about how elected officials are peddling rumors to further their right wing agenda. we've got another dandy for you tonight. another completely made-up hit job is making the rounds. and it comes from breitbart news editor at large ben shapiro. now shapiro knows the scoop when he sees one. last year he told america about -- all about a nefarious hug that president barack obama gave a professor some 20 years ago. now citing unnamed sources, shapiro alleges that defense secretary nominee chuck hagel have made financial ties to a group called friends of hamas. pretty explosive stuff. the story published on february 7th, got picked up by some right-wing blogs, including the national review online. senator rand paul weighed in on it.

>> let me bring up one piece of information that ben shapiro at breitbart put out today, which is one of the foreign funders behind senator hagel that he has not yet disclosed formally is something called friends of hamas. if that is in fact true, senator, would that lead you to vote against mr. hagel? >> you know, i saw that information today also, and that is more and more concerning. with each day there are new things coming out. >> well, we got a problem, houston. friends of hamas does not exist. the group was made up by "new york daily news" reporter dan friedman as a joke. friedman said he was asking a republican aide on capitol hill about rumors that hagel had spoken to controversial groups. >> so i was trying to follow up on that. and i was -- i spoke to a republican aide on the phone, and i asked about that. and i threw out the example of friends of hamas. >> friedman was making a joke, but the aide apparently passed along the information, and shapiro ran with the story.

and believe it or not, he is standing by it. "the story as reported is correct. whether the information i was given by the source is correct, i'm not sure." what a journalistic standard. shapiro's story is still posted on breitbart.com with no correction or clarification. let's bring in eric burns tonight, democratic strategist and founder of bullfight strategies. eric, good to see you. good to have you with us tonight. >> thanks for having me back, ed. it's great to be here. >> you have got united states senators, in this case rand paul and the conservative media talking about made-up stuff to try to make the case against somebody who is probably going to be on the president's cabinet. how big a problem is this? >> i think it's a serious problem, ed. it's one thing, and it's bad enough, and we've seen the effects of folks like breitbart.com or fox news pushing, you know, false stories, asking a debating question and running with it.

but to really have senior staff for united states senators, most likely somebody from the senate armed services committee peddling knowingly false information is a very serious problem because it isn't just a run-of-the-mill story. this is a confirmation hearing for the secretary of defense. the world is watching. our foreign policy is going to be affected by this hearing and by this appointment. >> yeah. >> i think it's something that when i was on the hill as a communications director, i never would have dreamed of passing on this kind of information. i think there needs somebody to look into this. who was this staffer? >> seeing how it gets in the conversation culture of the country. that sound clip we just played of hugh hewitt, who thinks he is a big academia kind of dude, he said hagel had not disclosed it yet, meaning that he is accepting this as gospel that yes, that chuck hagel does have ties with groups that are very questionable with the united states. i mean, this should be a credibility issue across the board. but the right wing media doesn't play by those rules, do they

noaa? >> no, they don't. in fact, this is their favorite kind of tried and true tactic as you ask a question, you make a statement with a question mark on the end of it, and then you use that to pillory folks and say, you know, what is your answer to this? you're not going to answer this? aren't you going to disclose this? we've seen this throughout this hearing, this confirmation process with senator hagel. and it's actually delayed this confirmation for a month when we actually need, you know, senator hagel on the job as the secretary of defense. and so it's a very serious problem. it's not just a partisan issue. i mean, this is about the core integrity of the functioning of government. >> what does it mean for hagel, do you think, quickly? >> i think it means that hagel should be confirmed absolutely. this is over and they need a vote to confirm hagel as secretary of defense as soon as they come back into session. >> all right. "wired" magazine reports that senate minority leader mitch mcconnell asked the pentagon to get to the bottom of what he called a very troubling story. "i'm writing on behalf of a

constituent who has contacted me regarding guantanamo bay prisoners receiving post-9/11 gi bill benefits." the constituent wrote to mcconnell about this disturbing information after reading an article on the duffel blog. it turns out that duffel blog reports on all kinds of stuff, like syria hosting iraq war reenactors. in other words, it's satire, folks. and now mcconnell's office is defending its actions? they put out a statement saying "senator mcconnell's office is hyper vigilant about finding answers to the questions raised by his constituents." how do you make that up, eric? >> that's a ridiculous statement from senator mcconnell's office. yes, senate offices, house office, they get a lot of request for information. but they do have the internet in those offices. they can -- the staff can google things, and they can look to see if they're true or not. i just can't imagine any senate staffer looking at that story and, you know, with what that

constituent was requesting thinking yes we need to send this on to the administration to have someone really look into this. it's absurd. >> you can't believe anything the republicans are saying on any issue these days. eric burns, great to have you with us tonight. thank you so much. a brand-new radical republican governor makes heartless cuts his first order of business. that is next. president obama is talking about his fix it first plan as a major road falls apart in arizona. i'll show you which republican might need to ask the president for help. "the ed show" congressional committee weighs in. stay with us. we're coming right back.

welcome back to "the ed show." thanks for staying with us tonight. take a look at this guy. north carolina's newly elected governor, pat mccrory, ran a textbook republican campaign, by the way. talked about smaller government, bigger cuts and all this stuff, and he won. mccrory is the first republican governor in north carolina in more than 20 years. mccrory has only been in office for six weeks, but he is already passing textbook republican legislation. for instance, on tuesday, he signed a law that will simply gut north carolina's unemployment insurance program. oh, he is a hero now. but mccrory's republican colleagues will tell you that it really should be called a reemployment rather than an unemployment bill, because the republican textbook says that, well, people on government assistance, you know, they're just lazy. but let's take a look at the numbers.

the united states unemployment rate is 7.9%. north carolina has the fifth highest jobless rate in the nation right now with 9.2% unemployment. that's more than 400,000 people. the law, which takes effect on july 1st, will cut the current maximum weekly benefits from $535 a week down to $350 a week. that's a real cut. currently an unemployed worker can collect from 26 weeks. under the new law, it's down to as little as 12 weeks. now, the average unemployed worker in the united states has been out of work 35 weeks. under the new law, about 170,000 long-term unemployment -- unemployed workers will lose out on federal extended benefits. now, according to the study by the labor department, every dollar we spend on unemployment benefits, $2 are pumped back into the economy. this is not -- this is a loss not just for the unemployed, but

for local and state economies. and, of course, mccrory promised fiscal restraint. this is what fiscal restraint looks like for governor mccrory. $13,200 pay hikes for his cabinet secretaries. his cabinet makes a combined number of $1.1 million. an 8% increase from his democratic predecessor. this is what you voted for, north carolina, next book conservative economics. instead of us affecting military readiness and a whole range of other things that are really important to our security and our prosperity, we should be focused on programs that we know don't work. >> the president continues to press republicans to stop the sequester. the big congressional panel tells house cuts will hit their districts next. plus, the pizza man tells us what is wrong with america. >> we have a severe ignorance problem. >> we've got the ignorance experts' greatest hits.

and john mccain helped create the tea party monster, and now it's turning on him. >> you said build a dang fence where. is the fence? your longwear makeup might stay on, ♪ but will it stay fabulous 'til 5 o'clock? it will if it's new outlast stay fabulous foundation from covergirl. what makes it so flawless hour after hour? primer, concealer and foundation, all in one. get the longwear that survives the 9 to 5, fabulously. new outlast stay fabulous foundation from easy, breezy, beautiful covergirl.

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so if you suffer from middle-of-the-night insomnia, ask your doctor about intermezzo and return to sleep again. ♪ thanks for staying with us tonight. if republicans refuse to take action within the next nine days, americans are going to start to feel the pain of sequestration in a very local way. today the president played that angle. he gave eight separate local interviews to television stations about the looming budget cuts. >> instead of us cutting education, instead of us cutting mental health programs, instead of us affecting military readiness and a whole range of other things that are really important to our security and our prosperity, we should be focused on programs that we know don't work, waste in government, and some of these tax loopholes that we could close that frankly only benefit the well off and the well connected. >> when those $85 billion in

spending cuts take effect march 1st, everything from food safety to airline safety is going to be squeezed. for instance, every city with an airport is going to feel the pain. the faa and the tsa plan to furlough 4700 workers, which will add at least an hour to the security line. i bet you're looking forward to that. for the northeast, serious problems. some families would face a much colder winter. in vermont, the heating assistance program could lose $177 million, risking 46,000 families living in poverty. in new york, communities are just getting back on their feet in the wake of super storm sandy. but sequestration could carve 5% out of that relief fund. that's a loss of $800 million meant for 10,000 homes and businesses throughout the area. in states like louisiana, the republican defense cuts could hurt the most. the army is bracing for $58 million in cuts to louisiana military bases, which add up to

taking $113 million out of the local economy and costing almost 4,000 jobs. our congressional panel tonight, let's turn to it. we're bringing people in who are going to feel the pain of sequestration on a local level. i'm joined tonight by congressman peter welch of vermont. and also with us is jerry nadler of new york. gentlemen, good to have you with here. >> good to be here. >> good to be here. >> congressman welch, in your area, this is going an immediate affect to families on your assistance program. what about that? >> it's tough. you know, the price of fuel is going up and the temperature is going down. and it's really tough on a lot of families. and we depend on getting some help for low income heating assistance. and in fact, that budget was cut even before the sequester in the state legislature with very little money. and the governor is trying to fill the hole. this is going to be very, very painful for a lot of low-income families. it's going to be painful for folks at the airport when the lines are longer. it's going to be painful for

some folks who were in defense-related industries in small peaceful vermont. so this is a big deal for us. >> congressman nadler, what will you lose if republicans fail to act by march 1st? >> we'll lose about $878 million in sandy aid, you know, to get some of our people back on their feet, to get the city back on its feet. we'll lose about $10 million in homeland services and $10 million in home heating assistance each. we'll lose about $75 million i gather from support for the new york city housing authority to keep -- to maintain those buildings. >> are you districts ready for these cuts? what about that, jerry. >> no, not at all. the city and the state are both scrambling and struggling to keep up the city and state share. we depend on the federal money. and a sudden cut -- these have been cut back before. the budget has been cut substantially in the last couple of years. a huge budget cut on top of this in home heating assistance and certainly in sandy aid would be

disastrous. >> sure. congressman welch, what do you think is going to happen? what is the solution here? >> well, the solution is that we don't act so stupid. i mean, this is really a dumb move. it's not as though we can't handle getting the deficit under control by doing some of the things the president mentioned. >> the republicans have drawn the line in the sand. no more revenue. so where does that leave the democrats? >> get rid of the loopholes. you know, in the fiscal cliff legislation, we put in a paragraph at the 11th hour that gave amgen about $500 million in increased reimbursements for medicaid -- a medicare drug. i mean, there are loopholes in there that just have no basis whatsoever in the budget. and it costs an immense amount of money. instead what we're doing is shifting the pain down to the states. jerry's state with sandy and our state with home heating assistance in a tight budget, it's really going to be rough. but the point is it's unnecessary.

and at the macro level, at the big level, it's just a very weak way for the united states to present itself in the world. we can deal with our problems if we use our head in not doing that. >> there is going to be local problems and everyone is going to feel it. these republicans are going to feel it in their backyard when it comes to defense contracts. and speak of local problems, senator john mccain did not support the president's fix it first plan during the state of the union address. but this might change mccain's mind about funding for the nation's infrastructure. a 200-foot-long section of u.s. 89 near phoenix literally dropped four feet this morning. the department of transportation says the sudden buckling of the road is not weather-related, and they expect the road is going to be shut down for an extended period of time. we have got bridges, gentlemen, in this country, in your backyard, jerry nadler, that no doubt have got to have some attention. >> we have 78,000 structurally deficient bridges in this country. i think what we ought to do is put a sign at the beginning of

every bridge that says this bridge is structurally deficient. proceed at your risk, and see what political pressure developed to start fixing our bridges. the american society of civil engineers says we have a $2.2 trillion, $2.2 trillion backlog of just getting our roads and highways and bridges and water systems up to a safe, reasonable level. and this kind of cutback that we're doing now, this sequester, besides being stupid because it's across the board and nondiscriminating, and besides being unnecessary is absolutely harmful for all the reasons we're speak about. but also it will take so much demand out of the economy that the estimates are it will cost at least a million jobs, at least a point in economic growth, and probably about a point in the unemployment -- increased unemployment. and we should simply scrap it. you know, we've reduced the deficit from 10.1 of gdp to 7%. and it's going down to 5%. that's enough at the moment. concentrate on unemployment. concentrate on getting the economy back in shape.

worry about the long-term deficit problem after we've got the economy in shape. >> well, if you believe that power point presentation that boehner put together in the summer of 2011, this has all been part of the plan. let's bring in the conversation congressman cedric richmond of louisiana. congressman, good to have you with us. what is this going to do to your area, cedric? congressman, what is it going to do to your area? >> well, it kills our area, to tell you the truth. in fact, part of the area where it hurts louisiana the most in terms of the army corps of engineers which of course is doing our coastal restoration and protecting the infrastructure that protects our families and citizens. but if we can't dredge the mississippi river, then the rest of the country can't get their goods to market. the cost of our goods are going to go up. so our farmers and everyone else who produces goods from manufacturers or farmer, they'll be at a competitive disadvantage in getting their goods to market. you're talking about almost a $250 million cut to the army corps of engineers.

and it's those things that are just mind-boggling. and to me lack common sense. because what we should be looking at is what kind of return we get on every dollar we spend. so if you're talking about early childhood education, are you talking about the army corps of engineers and dredging, those are both things that give you a phenomenal return on your investment, but we just have this approach that our republican colleagues are trying to initiate. >> sure. >> it just lacks common sense. and that's the frustrating part. >> congressman richmond, what about the military cuts in your backyard? these are going to be pretty devastating there is a big military presence in louisiana. >> we do. we have an extreme amount of shipbuilders and other people who work on government contracts and work for our military. so it's just what you try to do is use common sense and cut where you can cut, raise money where you can raise money.

and our colleagues have just refused to sit down like adults and plan out how we're going to run the country. so we just have cliff after cliff created by our republican colleagues that raise the anxiety of american citizens at a time that we shouldn't be doing this. we have people out of work and we have infrastructure collapsing. we could put people to work fixing what is already broke. >> congressman peter welch, jerry nadler and cedric richmond, great to have you gentlemen with us tonight on the congressional panel. thanks a lot. a john mccain town hall gets ugly. we'll show you the dang tape, next.

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i'm happy she is ours. you can go to our facebook page now and join the conversation. don't forget to like "the ed show" when you're there. we appreciate that. mr. 999 thinks you're ignorant. you got to see this one to believe it. we'll be right back.

and we are back. well, it looks like mr. 999 is back in action. fox news has announced that herman cain will be their newest contributor. in a statement titled "awww, shucky ducky", cain said he was very excited about being another voice for the intelligent thinkers on fox. saying this about the 51% of americans who voted for president obama -- >> we have a severe ignorance problem with the people who are so mesmerized by his popularity that they're not looking at the facts.

>> herman cain is calling the majority of americans severely ignorant. pretty sharp words from a man with a record like this. >> so you agreed with president obama on libya or not? >> okay, libya. >> if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself. we need a leader, not a reader. when they asked me who is the president of ubki-beki-beki-stan-stan, i don't know. >> i don't believe racism in this country today holds anybody back in a big way. >> i am the koch brothers brother from another mother. >> we'll have a real fence, 20 feet high, with barbed wire. electrified. >> specifically, what are you

asking me did i agree or not agree with obama? >> stupid people are running american. why? they're stupid. >> he's got a lot of things twiddling around in his head. hannity, he is your perfect guest. i'm glad the see that fox news has added another intelligent thinker to the team. a recent ppp poll shows a record 46% of voters do not trust fox news. but i'm sure the pizza man will improve those numbers. tonight in our survey, i asked you does john boehner know the meaning of leadership? 4% of you say yes. 96% of you say no. if you think john mccain is off the rails, wait until i show you what his constituents are saying. that's coming up.

and in the big finish tonight, senator john mccain is forced to battle the monsters he helped create. at a town hall meeting, the subject of immigration produced some extreme reactions from the crowd. >> why didn't the army go down there and stop them? because the only thing that stops them i'm afraid to say and it's too damn bad, but is a gun. that's all it that will stop them. >> this was not an isolated incident. here is another constituent's opinion. >> are there going to be on welfare? are they going to be on food stamps? >> again -- >> what is going to happen is -- >> again, sir, you're not telling these people the truth.

they wash -- they mow our lawns. they care for our babies. they clean -- those people do, sir. so you're wrong again. but go ahead. >> mccain even found himself confronted with his own words. >> you said build a dang fence. where is the fence? >> in case you missed it, i showed you. >> that's not a fence. >> that's not a fence? it's a banana. we have put up a banana with about $600 million worth of appropriations. >> of course, the constituent was referring to the ads senator mccain ran two years ago when he was running for reelection to the senate. >> complete the dang fence. >> it will work this time. senator, you're one of us. >> back then, mccain wasn't talking about the human face of immigration. he was talking about this. >> drug and human smuggling, home invasions, murder. >> now senator mccain is having a tough sell. >> you want to round up 11 million people and send them

back to their country? you're not going to do that. they're not going to do that. they're not going to do that, though. >> folks, this didn't happen in a vacuum. long before this week's angry crowd, and long before the tea party, presidential candidate john mccain put governor sarah palin on his ticket. >> our opponent is someone who sees america as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country. >> let's turn to maria teresa kumar, president and ceo of voto latino. great to have you with us here tonight. >> thank you. >> the shift of mccain, does it help or hurt the argument? he has vilified and demonized undocumented workers in the past. now he seems to want to embrace them. and it's amnesty is what it sounds like. >> well, he has basically gone back to his old mccain. and i think part of the reason is if folks remember, he actually helped introduce the 2007 comprehensive immigration reform.

and senator flake was actually one of the other members, also from arizona. and then politics got a little ugly, and he decided that the anti-immigrant rhetoric was going to win him into office. >> and people won't forget that. >> they're not forgetting it. i think what is happening is he said it best. the latino community came out in record numbers, and he realized that the republicans have a latino vote problem. in arizona do you know there are 400,000 unregistered latino voters? i plowed him that he is actually going around and basically dispelling the myths that often come associated with undocumented people. >> well, he is at odds with the very person that he put on the ticket and her alike. at a town hall, mccain tried to explain a path to citizenship after paying a fine and moving to the end of the line. but this is what he heard. >> now you are proposing that we suffer the indignity of rewarding these same law breakers amnesty. despite however you choose to phrase it. >> this is a problem, isn't it?

>> well, i think also it's a messaging problem. because what most folks don't realize, we're hearing one were to people at his town halls, very similar trying to create myths and lies of what actually happens. 64% of individuals that are undocumented in this country, ed, have lived here for more than ten years. what does that mean? these people are already members of our communities. they're going to school with our children. we're going to church with them. these are not strangers to america. and what mccain is doing is going out front and center and again, trying to dispel this myth. i do caution, though, the american people. if we don't have more people coming out and dispelling these lies, we're going to have chaos like we did when congressional members went and started talking about health care during the -- >> you don't need that kind of mix-up. >> we don't. >> a lengthy year battle back and forth and all the detail. i got you on that. here is mccain's remark on president obama. listen to this. >> so far the group of us that has been working on it have not had any problem from the white house. and we believe t